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After spending several years in social services, Nicole has finally followed her lifelong dream of being a full-time writer. In addition to her work for The Hudsucker, Nicole is also a staff writer for Womanista. An avid comic book fan, BBQ aficionado, professional makeup artist and first-time mom, Nicole can be found exploring Kansas City rich history when she's not blogging about suburban life at Suburban Flamingo.

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The FlashBack: ‘The Flash’ – Episode 10 ‘Potential Energy’

The Flash is DC’s television adaptation of the comic book of the same name. It airs Tuesday nights at 8/7 Central on The CW. Our writer, Nicole Drum recaps the series each week updating you on the latest episode here in The FlashBack.

Image Credit: The CW

Welcome back from the mid-season break! When we last saw our heroes, Barry was happy in a relationship, while Harry was pledging to help Zoom achieve his goal of destroying The Flash. We pick up not too much beyond that point, so if you are spoiler-adverse, it’s time to look away because our recap is after this point.

Last night’s episode opens with Barry and Patty happy, and off to a beautiful date (with the exception of some roses that caught fire due to Barry using his speed to get to the date). The happy couple laughs it off and settles into a nice evening, until Zoom shows up, snatches Patty, and then throws her off a roof while Barry watches in horror. It’s not the end of Patty though. It turns out Patty falling to her death was really just a bad dream, continuously plaguing Barry. Our hero is very afraid it will come true and Zoom will kill the one he loves, while Barry can only watch in horror.

Barry does his best to push this all down, but Patty is a detective. She is a clever girl and is very aware that something is not quite right with Barry. He has been pushing her away, so to figure out how to get Barry to let her in, Patty goes to speak with Iris. Iris continues her trend of being really smart and on top of things this season and suggests that Patty simply tell Barry that he can talk to her. Patty, armed with this advice, talks to Barry and tries to get him to open up. Instead of coming clean though, Barry chooses to just tell Patty that this time of year brings up bad memories for him of losing his mother. Patty understands. It’s a reasonable-enough explanation.

Moreover, Iris isn’t done with dispensing advice for the episode. She suggests that Barry should tell Patty about his superhero identity.

Of course, this wouldn’t be a Flash episode if there weren’t other issues tangling things up. As it is every week and this season, one of the major issues is the problem with Zoom. Cisco thinks he may have some sort of idea for dealing with Zoom by way of another villain. The villain Cisco thinks could be the key to dealing with Zoom is one that he has been tracking for a long time. Dubbed the Turtle, this meta-human has the ability to slow down time around him except it’s not time he’s slowing—Turtle is actually slowing down people around him, so that he moves at normal speed but is unable to be stopped. Turtle uses this power to steal expensive things that are worth more than money to their owners.

At first Team Flash thinks that catching this guy will be easy. The Flash is fast after all, but when Central City Police have a press conference where some stolen gems are returned to a community member, things prove to be far more difficult. The Flash turns out to not be immune to the Turtle’s slow motion powers, though the Flash’s speed does allow him minimal movement as opposed to the standstill normal humans experience. The team figures out that the Turtle robs the people around him of their kinetic energy, which leaves them with only potential energy. Somehow the team thinks that they have a better shot at him at an upcoming art event and Team Flash starts to plan for that when Barry gets an idea. He had promised Patty a real date, but since he needs to work on the Turtle situation, he lies about liking art and invites Patty alone, making the art event their date. In addition, Barry thinks he needs to tell Patty about his secret, but Harry point blank tells Barry not to.

At the art show, Cisco and Harry sit outside in the van to keep up surveillance, while Caitlin and Jay are inside looking fabulous. Barry meets up with Patty and they dance, during which Barry starts to tell Patty his secret. Just as he gets to the important part, Barry spots the Turtle and ditches Patty to get into his hero role. Patty is confused and stunned, but also notices the Turtle so she pulls her gun—Patty is no match for the Turtle. He slows things down, taking her gun and suddenly things don’t look good for Patty.

The Turtle doesn’t shoot Patty outright. Instead, he shoots down the chandelier above her while the Flash tries to fight his way through the slow-down to get to her. The Flash manages to save Patty by taking the hit of the chandelier himself, but “Barry the person,” still looks like an awful boyfriend. Barry goes to try to fix things with Patty and is understandably upset with him. Patty tells Barry that she is ready for a more serious part of the relationship and Barry needs to decide what he wants fast. Barry leaves, but soon after the Turtle shows up at Patty’s house and kidnaps her. The Turtle takes Patty to his creepy museum of stolen things where he tells her that he believes her to be the thing the Flash cares about most. The Turtle reveals his plan for Patty: to make her a display just as he did to his wife when she tried to leave him. The Turtle has his wife in a creepy glass case and he has another one ready for Patty.

Team Flash brainstorms to figure out where the Turtle’s lair is. Once they figure it out, the Flash runs to get to Patty. He tries to get to her once, but fails. This leads the Turtle to believe that Patty isn’t that important so he decides to just gut her. The Flash shows up again (after having run around the block a few times to build up some energy and momentum) and powers through the Turtle’s slow-down. This time our hero is successful, but Patty is clearly rattled. Barry misses another opportunity to tell her the truth.

Back at the police station, Barry decides that he is going to open up to Patty, but is too late. Patty has decided she is leaving Central City. A long time ago, she wanted to go to college to be a CSI, but she deferred her dream to become a cop to put her father’s killer behind bars. Now completed, it is time for her to move on. Unfortunately for Barry, she isn’t just moving on from being a cop—this is the end of their relationship.

Throughout the episode Barry isn’t the only person having issues with relationships. Joe struggling to find a place with Wally, wants to step right in and be a father, but Wally has a lot of anger towards his father. Wally isn’t exactly excited to have an instant family. Joe eventually discovers Wally’s drag racing and Wally explains that he has to do it to pay for his mother’s medical bills. The conversation goes poorly, but Wally later shows up at Joe’s house to get a sweater. It is then that Joe apologizes and asks if they can just slow things down. Wally has decided to leave, but seems to change his mind and sits down to have dinner with his father after Joe apologizes to him for trying too much too fast.

We also find out that Jay is terminally ill and the only thing that can save him is to stop Zoom. Harry kills the Turtle (and appears to take a sample of his brain) as part of his quest to stop Zoom/get his daughter back, which takes him closer to being Dr. Creepy. And then we get our teaser for next week: remember Reverse Flash? He’s back! Huh?

How do you feel about Patty departing? Are you over Zoom already? What is up with Reverse Flash coming back? Let’s talk in the comments section!